Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2021

Identifier

DOI: 10.1097/INF.0000000000003172; PMCID: PMC8274583

Abstract

Background: In Kenya, standard early infant diagnosis (EID) with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing at 6-week postnatal achieves early treatment initiation (<12 >weeks) in

Methods: We piloted birth testing at 4 Kenyan hospitals between November 2017 and November 2018. Eligible HIV-exposed infants were offered both point-of-care and PCR HIV testing at birth (window 0 to <4 >weeks) and 6 weeks (window 4-12 weeks). We report the: proportion of infants tested at birth, 6-week, and both birth and 6-week testing; median infant age at results; seropositivity and antiretroviral therapy initiation.

Results: Final sample included 624 mother-infant pairs. Mean maternal age was 30.4 years, 73.2% enrolled during antenatal care and 89.9% had hospital deliveries. Among the 590 mother-infants pairs enrolled before 4 weeks postnatal, 452 (76.6%) completed birth testing before 4 weeks, with 360 (79.6%) testing within 2 weeks, and 178 (39.4%) before hospital discharge (0-2 days). Mothers were notified of birth PCR results at a median infant age of 5.4 weeks. Among all 624 enrolled infants, 575 (92.1%) were tested during the 6-week window; 417 (66.8%) received testing at both birth and 6-weeks; and 207 received incomplete testing (93.3% only 1 PCR and 6.7% no PCR). Four infants were diagnosed with HIV, and 3 infants were initiated on antiretroviral therapy early, before 12 weeks of age.

Conclusions: Uptake of PCR testing at birth was high and a majority of infants received repeat testing at 6 weeks of age.

Journal Title

The Pediatric infectious disease journal

Volume

40

Issue

8

First Page

741

Last Page

745

Comments

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Publisher's Link: https://journals.lww.com/pidj/Fulltext/2021/08000/Piloting_the_Feasibility_and_Preliminary_Impact_of.11.aspx

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